Entaglements

Marco Tulio de la Sierra and Sasha Fishman

PUTTY'S CORONATION is pleased to announce the opening of Entanglements, a two-person exhibition featuring paintings and sculptures by Marco Tulio de la Sierra and Sasha Fishman at Putty’s Coronation on 483 17th St, 4B, Brooklyn, NY 11215 from May 25th -June 22nd 2024.  

Entanglements brings together two artists navigating humanity’s amalgamated relationship with the natural world.  Both artist’s processes begin with ecology and through manipulation of organic elements and imagery, move towards something bordering the real and inventive. Sasha Fishman sculpts with biomaterials such as mycelium(mushroom roots) and tanned fish skins to create novel forms that explore humanity’s role in shaping the ecosystem. Marco Tulio de la Sierra depicts tree branches morphing into speculative organisms. Both weave new narratives of growth and breakdown, recombining the human and non-human. 

For Entanglements, Marco Tulio de la Sierra presents a series of paintings that explore the anthropomorphism of trees. In a highly stylized detailed rendering of branches, Tulio de la Sierra’s limbs become flesh-like. The branches swirl and curve, tipped with sharp spikes. Blotches of a blood red appear on the canvas, marking sections where the branches have been trimmed or cut. The hemophilia of the trees hints to the much larger, complex neural-network system of this great organism. Set against the skin toned sky of  raw linen, these branches morph into alien limbs — beckoning us towards a re-engagement with nature. 

Sasha Fishman’s sculptural practice combines scientific and material research with traditional fabrication techniques. Bioplastics, fishskins, and fungi fuse with wood and ceramic to to construct monuments and relics that point towards a future where the line between organic and the artificial dissolves. Natural themes blend with surreal elements, generating an ambivalent and uncanny reflection of humanity in the process of transformation. 

Both artists testament to the feedback loops between humans, nature, and technologies advocates giving in to entanglement. Their works press us to confront the intricacies of non-human lifeforms, rejecting man-machine and man-nature binaries and centering a more holistic understanding of species’ interdependence. 

Sasha Fishman is a sculptor and researcher based in New York. She received her BFA at UT Austin and MFA at Columbia University. She has exhibited her work at Below Grand (New York) and Resort (Maryland) Hesse Flatow (New York), Bozomag (Los Angeles), The Jewish Museum (New York), The Indian Ceramics Triennale (New Delhi, India), and Navel (Los Angeles). She has participated in international residencies at Art Ichol (India), NAHR (Italy), and the High Desert Observatory (California).

Marco Tulio de la Sierra Marco Tulio de la Sierra is of Colombian descent living and working in Brooklyn, New York. He received his BFA in Painting and Philosophy from SUNY New Paltz. He has exhibited his work at Below Grand (New York), Samuel Dorsky Museum (New York) HAW Hamburg Group Show (Hamburg).